Digital Archive....

Is Africa's Medium Term Future Really Urban? New Evidence Development Horizons from Lawrence Haddad The recent report from UNICEF " Children in an Urban World " has much to commend it. Urban populations are growing, more children are being brought up in urban areas, and we in the development research community are having to play catch up with this (based on my highly imperfect knowledge of the number of research projects, research funding streams and calls, journal articles etc.). The UNICEF report confirms much of what we know: on average urban areas are better off (for example the rates of child underweight prevalences are 1.5 times higher in rural areas), and yet the urban areas contain pockets (large ones) of some of the most destitute and poorest people on the planet. What the UNICEF report does, being a UN report, is use UN urban population data projections.  For example, the inside cover (above) has a graphic that shows  Nigeria w...

The End Of The Euro: What's Austerity Got To Do With It? The Baseline Scenario By Simon Johnson Most of the current policy discussion concerning the euro area is about austerity.  Some people – particularly in German government circles – are pushing for tighter fiscal policies in troubled countries (i.e., higher taxes and lower government spending).  Others – including in the new French government — are more inclined to push for a more expansive fiscal policy where possible and to resist fiscal contraction elsewhere. The recently concluded G20 summit is being interpreted as shifting the balance away from the "austerity now" group, at least to some extent.  But both sides of this debate are missing the important issue.  As a result, the euro area continues its slide towards deeper crisis and likely eventual disruptive break-up. The underlying problem in the euro area is the exchange rate system itself – the fact that these European cou...